Super Lunar Event: Red Blood Moon, Lunar Eclipse, And Supermoon Going to Happen at Once
The Atmosphere of The Earth Provides the Moon with A Pale Reddish Hue During the Time of The Total Lunar Eclipse
This year’s first-ever lunar eclipse is expected to occur in the early morning hours of May 26, but this would be a special super lunar event, as it would be comprising of a red blood moon, a lunar eclipse, and a supermoon at the same time.
A Supermoon
A supermoon is when a new or full moon is able to coincide with the closest approach of the Moon to the Earth. The orbit circle of the Moon around the planet Earth is not in a perfectly spherical shape. It suggests that the distance of the Moon from the Earth has multiple variations as it goes around our planet. The point where the Moon is at its closest with the Earth throughout the orbit is called the perigee, which is roughly around 28,000 closes to the surface of Earth as compared to the farthest point in the orbit of Moon. A full moon which occurs when the location of the Moon is near the perigee region, is known as a supermoon, which is also a part of this year’s first super lunar event.
The reason what makes the supermoon super is the Moon’s close proximity with the Earth, making it seems a bit larger and brighter than usually observed, although major differentiation between a normal moon and supermoon is usually very hard to observe unless a comparative analysis is being done with the pictures of both moons side by side. This could be noticed in the upcoming super lunar event on May 26 this year.
Working of lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse, which is to occur during the super lunar event, usually occurs when the shadow of Earth is able to cover either all or most part of the surface of the Moon, this occurs at the time of the full moon, and further elaboration would be comprehended by first understanding the making of the full moon.
Similar to Earth, the half surface of the Moon is illuminated by the light source coming from the sun. A full moon occurs when the Sun and the Moon are at the opposite end of the Earth. This allows the people of Earth to see the side of the Moon, which is completely illuminated by the Sun, and looks like a circular disc in the sky at night.
If the orbit of the Moon was in a completely spherical shape, every full moon throughout the year would have been a lunar eclipse. It has been observed that the orbital line of the Moon is slightly tilted around 5 degrees as compared to the orbit of the Earth, due to which most of the time when a full moon occurs, it is slightly below or above the shadow which is cast on its surface by the Earth.
But in each of the lunar orbit, it happens twice when the Moon comes at the same plane in horizontal axis as the Sun and the Earth, and if it is able to be correspondent with a full moon, the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun will be able to form a straight line, causing the Moon to pass through the shadow of the Earth, resulting in a total lunar eclipse, which is also set to happen in the super lunar event.
To be able to observe this lunar eclipse during the super lunar event, you require to be on the night side of the Earth when the Moon is passing through the Earth’s shadow. To see this, the best areas where the super lunar event would be best visible are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the East Coast of Asia, Australia, and America’s West Coast. The super lunar event also featuring red blood lunar eclipse would only be visible in the eastern half of the United States, but for a limited time and in the early stages before the sets.
Red Blood Moon
When the Moon is covered completely by the shadow cast by the Earth, it tends to become dark in color but does not do entirely black. Instead, the Moon could be observed in a deep red color, due to which most of the total lunar eclipses are also tend to be called black or red moons.
The light from the Sun contains all colors in the visible light spectrum. The gas particles which make up the atmosphere of the Earth are likely to scatter the wavelength of blue light while allowing the red-light wavelengths to pass through undeflected. This phenomenon is known as the Rayleigh scattering, which is the reason why our sky is blue in color and the time of sunrise and sunset are most of the time in a reddish hue.
In the case of a lunar eclipse, which will occur in the super lunar event, the red light is able to pass through the atmosphere of the Earth and refracted towards the surface of the Moon, while the bluish light is removed, making the Moon be in a reddish color during the time of a lunar eclipse.
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